Everybody wanna win, but don’t nobody wanna struggle. Everybody wanna shine, but don’t nobody wanna go through the storm it takes to earn that light.

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Now I ain’t sayin’ this to discourage you—I’m sayin’ this to prepare you. ‘Cause see, the journey to success? It ain’t smooth. It ain’t pretty. And it most definitely ain’t fair.

Most of us who done made it—we were the firsts. First to graduate. First to own somethin’. First to break out the neighborhood. First to dream outside the zip code we was born in. And when you the first? Ain’t no instructions. Ain’t no cheat code. You learn as you go.

When I was comin’ up, I ain’t have a safety net. Wasn’t no Plan B. Wasn’t no rich uncle or fallback job. I was walkin’ that tightrope with nothin’ underneath me but the cold hard ground—and believe me, I hit that ground more times than I can count.

But every fall taught me something. Every “no” led me to a better “yes.” Every failure? That was just God redirectin’ me to where I was really supposed to go.

Now let’s talk about your kids. See, when you come from nothin’ and you finally make it, your first instinct is to protect your babies from all the pain you had to go through. And I get it. Trust me, I do.

But here’s the problem: sometimes, in tryin’ to protect ‘em, we forget to prepare ‘em.

We give ‘em the world but forget to teach ‘em how we got it. We hand ‘em a soft landing but don’t let ‘em climb. And you can’t build character on cushioned floors. That grit? That perseverance? That only comes from pressure.

So what do you do? You give ‘em love, but you also give ‘em truth. Let ‘em scrape their knees. Let ‘em figure some stuff out. Let ‘em fall and learn how to stand on their own two feet. That’s how you raise leaders. That’s how you raise legacy.

Listen—don’t be ashamed of your grind. Don’t water down your story to make it pretty. Your pain is your power. Your struggle is your strength. And your journey? That’s somebody else’s blueprint.

So to everybody out there walkin’ that wire with no net, I see you. I am you. And let me remind you: if God gave you the vision, He’ll give you the provision. You just gotta keep steppin’.

‘Cause at the end of the day, grit don’t come in a box. You can’t buy it, borrow it, or fake it. You earn it.

And when you do?

You’ll realize… that grit is what makes the win mean somethin’.

💬 Leave a comment below and tell me what you’re grindin’ for. What’s the dream that’s keepin’ you goin’? Let’s celebrate the journey and the grit it takes to get there.